Sydneyberlin

We had similar experiences on Celebrity once but our last NCL experience was good. We weren’t ready yet to book an actual cruise and I get the feeling that this is exactly how it’s supposed to work. The staff is there to push purchase of the the cruisenext vouchers, not to actually help you book the upcoming cruise.

The atrium is where they used to have ample Veuve available at the bar. Anything else- could really not care less. But each to their own, we never had any problems with that area.

We love French champagne and can easily down the equivalent of 3 bottles over rye cause of one day and night which is the prime reason for always getting the premium plus package, we love it. But it sounds as if this is specifically about cocktails: I love my morning Bloody Mary while my other half prefers Mimosa (with French champagne, of course, preferably Veuve). By the pool, it’s Frozen Strawberry Daiquiri for me and frozen Mudslide for him. In the evening, I’m partial to a dirty Vodka Martini or just a double Scottish Malt Whisky. We also enjoy wines with dinner and are quite curious about the beer bar on our upcoming Encore cruise in April.

Looking at my beer belly (or Veuve baby, rather)- that makes a lot of sense! See you at the belly splash competition… 🙂

That’s pretty much it! As long as there’s unlimited glasses of Veuve, it’s worth for us. Actually- we find that the hangovers are BETTER when you only drink top shelf beverages on the plus package, at least that’s what we tell ourselves 😉 Our day looks quite similar: Mimosa or Bloody Mary before breakfast (depending on the night before) Big Starbucks Glass or two of Veuve at breakfast itself 1 or 2 frozen slushies by the pool, extra shot of rum on top, please Bottle of Veuve with lunch (used to be possible- if not, then we get it by the glass) A beer or two Nap for two or so hours 1 or 2 glasses of champagne or a cocktail pre dinner 1 bottle of Veuve followed by a couple of reds by the glass with dinner Shots/Cocktails/whatever in the evening Finishing off with two or three shots of Scottish Single Malt Sleep

Hang on- I’m still confused. Is the “any drink available by the glass is included” rule still valid or not? We don’t mind searching for the better bottles which usually can be found somewhere on the ship, as long as they don’t somehow downgrade this general rule. And if Veuve is back by the bottle also- we’re sold and as heavy boilers will definitely get our money’s worth. Believe it or not but 20+ drinks a day is easy for us 😉

Please do report back. We’ll be doing the Encore in April, are super excited after all the Covid stuff but are starting to get worried with all the negative reports on here. So any real life experiences would be greatly appreciated! 🙂

We’re actually really quite cranky about this. We specifically booked the Encore because it had a nice musical. After twice getting cancelled over Covid, we finally get to do our Panama Canal cruise and what do they do? They cancel Kinky Boots, seemingly just for cost saving! So frustrating. And one of the reasons we loved NCL was precisely the fact that they show some slightly more adult themed shows- as a gay couple from Australia for all places, we absolutely loved Prescilla on our Epic cruise just before the pandemic. All that other Beatles etc. stuff doesn’t appeal to us at all, unfortunately. So not happy, NCL.

Oh- you don’t have this forced upon gratuity in the US? Apologies, I wasn’t aware. I had assumed that we’re talking about gratuity IN ADDITION to the gratuity. I was obviously incorrect, which tends to happen from time to time 😉

In ONE single country in the world and that’s the US.

Ah, the French claim that geese essentially enjoy getting fattened to death… Admittedly, I don’t believe a word of it. But it gives me an excellent excuse to continue enjoying such a delicious piece of torture meat up in a while 🙂

In this case it might just be NCL booking the cheapest option possible but I would ALWAYS book a hotel night in the same city as my cruise departs to be on the safe side. We come from Australia so it’s a no brainer for us but even for Domestic connections, we wouldn’t risk it. Our next cruise in April leaves from Miami and fly into JFK via Japan three days before, stay in NYC for two nights (who would ever be silly enough to miss the chance for two days in the Big Apple?), then fly down to Miami the day before our cruise and then stay that night in Miami Beach. Because this way, we are pretty safe to make our cruise in time AND we can slowly introduce our livers to two weeks of free flowing alcohol by having a night out in Miami Beach. Sorted.

We used to have such an awesome NCL consultant here in Sydney but it seems he was laid off during Covid. We then got assigned a lady who wasn’t very proactive, often did not reply to our emails etc. After a while of trying with her, we finally complained to a central NCL email address in the US that I had found here or some place also on the internet. Took a week or so but I suddenly got a call by that same lady apologising profoundly and since then, without a doubt, she’d call or email back within an hour if I ask for something. No complaints since then 🙂 Does anyone know- are they on commission those guys?

As long as you can still get a good bottle of French champagne and any available drink by the glass through this package, it’s still amazing value to us. You can still get those or not?

I’d really like to hear about recent experiences with this. I also can’t eat seafood or fish (if I do, my stateroom attendant will have a nightmarish time the next day so let’s not go into details…) and would hope you can at least have you soup plus salad in a case like this. Also, if you’re a really big eater who wants to double up on some of the courses (I might have been guilty of that in the past…), it makes zero sense to allow this in the main dining too still but not in the paid for rooms, I think someone else has already mentioned that up thread.

As long as that Foie Gras is still available on top of the steak. Hey- I’d pay $100 for the Foie alone. Sorry, birds, you just taste too good. Nothing more amazing than Foie Gras!

Yes-I’m taking about the main dining rooms. Which ships, trying to remember, were been on Allure, Quantum and Anthem. We also did Celebrity Solstice in between and when we went on the NCL Epic, we realised that their food is more comparable to Celebrity than RCL. Specialty dining was better in NCL than RCL too but Celebrity would have the edge. We love to booze, so for us the Plus package on NCL is really what sways us even over Celebrity: All day French champagne and ultra high end whiskies is something you can’t get in even some of the ultra luxury cruise lines. So together with the better food, that makes Norwegian our new go to.

Totally not from my experience. We’ve been on both and NCL beats RCC easily when it comes to food quality, especially specially in the main dining rooms. But this judgement of course is based on individual tastes and our specific experiences with both cruise lines.

Couldn’t agree more, an issue I encounter at many places, not only here. But we’ve booked our specialty dining accordingly for our April cruise- 2x Le Bistro, 2X Onda and only 1X Cagney’s.